A newly discovered grove of old-growth Redwoods. A diverse group of outdoor adventurers. A historic first.

Last year, a new grove of old-growth Redwoods was discovered just north of San Francisco—a historic discovery that revealed trees as ancient as 1,640 years old. Purchased by Save The Redwoods League, the Harold Richardson Redwoods Reserve quickly attracted the world’s attention. People clamored to know when the public would be admitted to see it.

Then, something amazing happened. Teresa Baker, founder of the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge and the African American National Park Event, approached Save The Redwoods League and proposed that the first people to walk the land should be a diverse coalition of outdoor leaders—activists, college professors, adventurers, and others—from groups traditionally underrepresented in the outdoor space.

“I had been wanting to do something like this for a while,” Baker said. “I just didn’t know the location. I knew the people I wanted to invite and the message I wanted to deliver. Then, when I heard the announcement about the newly discovered Redwoods, I thought, ‘This is perfect. This is it.’

“Just to be in that space, knowing that the public had never been there, was a new vision for all of us. It was amazing to witness a beginning—and that’s what this was, a beginning.”

The Outbound Collective captured the experience for its #EveryoneOutside campaign.